Expert solicitors for joint ventures and shareholders' agreements

Blake Morgan’s solicitors are experts on structuring complex commercial arrangements between shareholders and joint ventures parties.

In a joint venture arrangement, you may be working with, and taking on risk by investing in, someone you may not have worked with before. We offer clear, commercially sound advice structuring what each of the parties should bring to the joint venture; what they get out of it at the end and how any issues should be dealt with along the way.

We regularly act for investors, entrepreneurs and owner managed businesses. If you are operating your own company you will want to secure that all-important financial investment without giving away too much. Or, if you are an investor, you will want to make sure you secure the right protections and that your financial expectations of the investment are properly reflected.

Main areas of practice

Our joint venture lawyers have significant experience of advising on all forms of joint ventures, both domestic and cross-border, including the following:

Formation

We advise on the most advantageous corporate or contractual structures taking into account the commercial, legal, funding, tax and risk requirements of the joint venture parties.

Documenting the joint venture relationship

Our extensive experience of advising on all forms of joint venture means that we are well placed to assist you to plan and document the joint venture or strategic alliance, in the form of a shareholders' agreement and bespoke articles of association or contractual joint venture agreement.

Operational support

We continue to provide expert advice to the joint venture parties or the entity itself throughout the life of the joint venture on all manner of commercial arrangements connected with the business, to include start-up and additional financing requirements, tax and employment incentives, real estate, commercial contracts and intellectual property.

Exits

Our specialist teams regularly advise the joint venture parties or the joint venture company itself on exit options and can provide the full range of support as part of any transaction structure ranging from trade sale, secondary buyout, IPO or termination procedures.

Our clients

We advise clients from all industry sectors and sizes in respect of shareholders’ agreements, including family run businesses, owner managed businesses, investor/operator joint ventures and large corporates. Some of our clients may have third-party investors; others may have minority employee shareholders in place. We understand their different requirements and try to minimise potential risks where we identify them.

We have worked with Blake Morgan for many years and have always found their practice to be incredibly customer-oriented. We find that their willingness to support our business goals and to understand the objectives that underpin our strategy means that their guidance and advice is always perfectly aligned to our needs.
- Legal 500, 2026

There's genuine warmth and friendliness from the staff who provide practical advice and make complicated concepts seem simpler.
- Chambers and Partners, 2025

A real strength is their obvious internal cooperation, which means I get excellent advice on complex subjects.
- Chambers and Partners, 2025

The Blake Morgan team is great and the lawyers are very commercially aware.
- Chambers and Partners, 2025

Highlights

We have advised wealthy investors in a series of complex property joint ventures, working urgently to meet tight deadlines to secure investment on time.

We have assisted owner managed businesses structure their shareholdings to match their employee incentivisation arrangements.

We have drafted a bespoke shareholders' agreement in support of a family investment company to assist with efficient estate tax planning.

Awards, accolades and accreditations

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